| “ | No! I never wanted to kill anyone. It's you! It was you back then, making me do all those horrible things. I never wanted this!
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” |
Karen is a main character from the Silent Hill: Orphan sub-series. She is a nurse working in a medical clinic and a survivor of a massacre that occurred in the Sheppard's Orphanage in Silent Hill.
She is a playable character in Silent Hill: Orphan, an NPC in Silent Hill: Mobile 2, and the final boss of Silent Hill: Mobile 3. Karen is the only character that appears directly in all games of the Orphan sub-series.
Biography[]
Karen lived in a mansion with her parents in a secluded part of Silent Hill. At one point, Karen had her mansion set on fire by a pyromaniac, killing her parents. She survived and was placed in an orphanage in Silent Hill, the Sheppard's Orphanage.
Upon arriving at the orphanage, Karen starts to suffer from maltreatment and humiliation by the other orphans. She also starts talking to the ghost of her deceased sister, Alessa. As the two talk, they make a promise that "the orphanage would wash away all the evil and would find a good place to live together."
In order to fulfill the promise to finally rest in peace, Alessa has a possessed Karen kill all the other orphans in their beds and then escape the orphanage without remembering anything.
However, Alessa fails to fulfill the promise, as the orphans Ben, Moon, and Emilie have survived the massacre. As punishment for this, Karen kills those children with the evil side of Alessa, which is trapped in the form of a monster in the Otherworld version of the orphanage. Karen believes that this might free Alessa's spirit after all the orphaned survivors (including Karen) are dead. Karen grew up without knowing that there had been a massacre at the orphanage.
Silent Hill: Orphan[]
30 years after a terrible massacre in the orphanage, Karen wakes up locked in the orphanage warehouse without remembering how she got there (it seems she was teleported by Alessa). After being locked up a few hours, another survivor, Ben, comes to investigate the massacre. He hears Karen screaming for help through the vent pipe and offers to help her by looking for the store room key. However, Ben does not return, and Karen falls asleep.
When Karen wakes up, the warehouse door is open and she begins to hear the voice of someone who calls herself "Alessa" and who guides her through the corridors of the orphanage. Karen then comes to believe that Ben is already dead in the shower room. After solving a series of puzzles and killing various monsters, Karen enters the Otherworld version of the orphanage, where she now finds Alessa transformed into a monster. Alessa turns out to be Karen's dead sister. She also reveals to Karen that the head of the orphanage massacre was under demonic possession from Alessa, who sought revenge for the orphans. Karen says she never wanted to kill anyone, and that the real killer was Alessa. Alessa then becomes angry and tries to kill Karen. Karen wins the fight, then flees the orphanage.
Silent Hill: Orphan 2[]
During Silent Hill: Mobile 2, a man named Lucas wakes up in Brookhaven Hospital with no memory of his past. He hears Karen's voice, telling him that "a man is coming" and "they should catch him and punish him."
After walking through the corridors of the hospital, guided by Karen, it is revealed that Karen is trying to revive the dead orphans from Sheppard's Orphanage. However, she could only revive Lucas, and he was very weak. Karen then asks Lucas to go to his office at the hospital so they can talk. During the conversation, the two argue and Lucas "kills" Karen.
Afterwards, another man named Vincent travels to the hospital after receiving an anonymous letter from someone claiming to "know the truth". After finding Karen dead and solving several puzzles, Vincent finds Lucas, now transformed into an insane monster. Lucas calls Vincent "father" and attacks him, saying that "he is responsible for your pain". Vincent reacts to the attack and apparently kills Lucas. In turn, Lucas leaves a key, which Vincent uses to open a torture room. In the torture room, Vincent begins to hear the voices of the dead orphans, who say they "thought it was going to escape". He then loses his memory when faced with a shadow (possibly the ghost of the orphans or Karen), initiating the events of Silent Hill: Mobile 3.
Silent Hill: Mobile 3[]
After the events of Silent Hill: Orphan 2, Vincent wakes up in the mansion where Karen spent her childhood before going to the orphanage. The evil part of Karen returns, now a monster. The evil side of Karen is now seeking revenge by creating various monsters from the spirits of the dead orphans to kill Vincent.
Vincent goes to the dining room of the mansion, where he is attacked by the evil side of Karen, leaving him mortally injured. Afterward, another massacre survivor named Emilie wakes up in the abandoned mansion in the Otherworld with no memory of how she got there. After several battles and puzzles, Alessa instructs her to kill herself using a holy knife found previously in the mansion. Emilie refuses at first, but Alessa reveals to her that, if she were to commit suicide, it would release the spirits, allowing them to revive Vincent. Emilie still refuses, but agrees when Alessa says this is the only way she can "get out of hell" and that if she does not, other innocent people will end up dying.
However, Karen is killed by Vincent under the guidance of Alessa. It is also revealed that Vincent was the pyromaniac who accidentally caused the fire that resulted in the death of Karen's parents, which is why she wanted revenge on him. It is also revealed that Lucas is Vincent's son, who died when he was five years old. This is why he wanted to kill Vincent, and the reason for his rage which caused him to kill Karen. He was being manipulated by Alessa when he was Vincent.
At the end of the game, after killing the bad side of Karen, Vincent begins to have a heart attack and speaks with Alessa one last time before he dies. She tells Vincent that the real purpose of the massacre of the orphanage was to "wake up his spirit" and for that, she needed to murder all the orphans of Sheppard's Orphanage.
Quotes[]
- "I'm Karen. I don't know how I got here... but I seem to be locked up... in the orphanage I lived in thirty years ago..."
- "I took care of you. No one else did. They wanted you dead!"
- "He is the reason for our pain, for your pain! But if we capture him, the pain will end. I promise!"
- "That's not the problem, you started this fire and then everything happened, the orphanage, the murder of the children, Lucas... everything."
Trivia[]
- It is possible that Karen was intended to be a heroic protagonist in early drafts of the Orphan continuity, but the idea was scrapped during the development of Mobile 2. Karen's personality sharply changes from part 2 to part 3. In Orphan, she is shown as a kind, heroic person. In Silent Hill: Mobile 2 and 3, however, she is cruel and out to get revenge.
- Karen is one of the few monsters that are conscious and can speak in their monstrous forms, the others being Mary, Prisoners, the Twin Victim, the Bottom, Leonard Wolf, Momma, the Steel Guardian, the Bloodied Bag, Monocle Man, Alessa, Lucas and Ben.
Gallery[]
